The Tigers are hitting a wall as the season winds to a close. After their fourth straight loss and seventh in their last eight games, they have no "choice but to flush it," said A.J. Hinch, "and get to the next one."
"This one was ugly at the beginning, it was ugly at the end and there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about in the middle," Hinch said after Detroit's 10-1 loss to the Braves Friday night at Comerica Park. "It makes for a long night."
Not long ago, it looked like the Tigers had the AL Central locked up. They also looked destined for one of the top two seeds in the American League and a bye into the divisional round of the playoffs. Now the Guardians are charging, the Tigers are slipping and nothing is guaranteed for Detroit other than eight more games, including three next week in Cleveland.
"There is no elephant in the room, because it’s very obvious where we are in the season and what’s at stake and the struggles that we’ve had," said Hinch. "The reality is, the next game comes and it’s equally to more important than the previous one that you played. It’s the big leagues, it’s September in a pennant race, and everything’s right out in front of us."
In the clubhouse, the players swear there's no panic -- "no panic at all," said Gleyber Torres. Perhaps some panic would do them some good. Torres is one of several Tigers who has slumped since representing the team in the All-Star Game. In the month of September, during which time Detroit has seen its division lead shrink from 9.0 games to 2.5 after Cleveland won its eighth in a row Friday night, Torres is hitting .181, Riley Greene .180, Zach McKinstry .194 and Javy Baez .136.
On Friday night, Detroit's offense managed one run -- a homer by Spencer Torkelson when the deficit was 6-0 -- in seven innings against a pitcher by the name of Bryce Elder who entered the game with the same ERA this year as Morton: 5.56.
"We got the tools and the talent to get through this moment," Torres said. "We just have to figure out how to win one and after that we’re going to rock and roll. I think it’s part of the journey. Nothing is really easy right now, but we want this. We don’t want anything really easy. The situation we have right now is good for us. It sounds crazy. But I think this is the moment our players are going to get better and be the best we can be and show what we can do."
One of the best teams in the bigs in the first half of the season, the Tigers are 21-23 since the trade deadline when Scott Harris made minimal upgrades to the roster. The two starting pitchers he acquired, Charlie Morton and Chris Paddack, combined to allow eight runs on eight hits Friday night, with Morton getting knocked out of the game in the second inning. McKinstry was on the mound by the end of the night. The Tigers are now tied for third in the AL with the Mariners, who have won nine of 10, putting a playoff bye in doubt.
Hinch knows his players better than anyone. Less then a month ago, the Tigers were 25 games over .500. It was Hinch who guided them there. Now he's trying to steer them out of this before it gets any worse. Asked why he believes they can turn things around, "I know the work that’s going in," said Hinch, "I know how much they care, I know the conversations that are going on, and I know how badly these guys want to do it."
"They’ve tasted it before," he said. "Experience will tell you to hang with your guys because they’re going to be the guys that are going to bring us out of this and get us a win tomorrow. That’s what we can control at this point. If you’ve watched us at all throughout the year, tell me if this team looks like the team that’s played 150 games. A portion of it, for sure, because we’ve really had a tough go of it of late and even some stretches beforehand, but I believe in these players and these players believe in themselves. And if we don’t stay together, I can assure it goes even further south than where it’s at right now."
The Tigers have two more against the Braves, before closing the season on the road in Cleveland and Boston. Their final series will come against a Red Sox team vying for one of the final wild card spots in the AL. They can point to the fact that they snapped out of an extended slide in July by winning four in a row. That's the type of response they need right now.
Torres, one of the most experienced players on the Tigers' roster, insists the club is "really prepared for this moment."
"No panic," he reiterated. "We’re still in first place, we’re not looking back at who’s behind us, we’re looking forward. We have to play together as a team and figure it out."